Israel bombs UN post?

It looks like a fuck up, but it seems the IDF bombed a UN observation post, and then shelled a rescue team sent to retrieve 4 reported casualties. This kind of thing is to be expected in warfare, however unfortunate it is.

Given that a Canadian was killed, it might not be surprising that some of the elements of this story are not well known outside of the bounds of the Great White North. A week before he was killed, the Canadian at that post sent an email. In it he clearly described the Israeli shelling as target Hezbollah positions near the post. Hezbollah had taken up those positions in the hope that the presence of the UN post would spare them retaliatory attacks even as they lobbed shells at the IDF.

It didn’t work, and the UN post, essentially a human shield, was destroyed.

So it was an accident, in that the IDF was not gunning for the post. But the IDF was targeting the area because of Hezbollah tactics of trying to use noncombattants as shields.

Personally I blame Hezbollah first, the UN second. The UN should have pulled those guys out the moment the fighting broke out. The UN has no business being in an active war zone unless they are willing to fight.

A week before he was killed, the Canadian at that post sent an email. In it he clearly described the Israeli shelling as target Hezbollah positions near the post. Hezbollah had taken up those positions in the hope that the presence of the UN post would spare them retaliatory attacks even as they lobbed shells at the IDF.

The Canadian peacekeeper stated that shells from the Israeli bombardment of nearby Hezbollah positions were occasionally falling close to the UN position, true. However, this is nothing to do with the day in question (several days later) when the UN position itself was specifically targetted. The Israelis have claimed that they mistook the UN position for a Hezbollah one.

THIS is why Tom Clonan (a former Irish Army Captain with experience in the Leb) wrote a piece on Thursday calling the Israeli claims bull. The ‘Canadian Email’ is just FUD to cloud the issue.

Hezbollah had taken up those positions in the hope that the presence of the UN post would spare them retaliatory attacks even as they lobbed shells at the IDF.

Really? Because from what I’ve seen quoted, he said no such thing.

Personally I blame Hezbollah first, the UN second. The UN should have pulled those guys out the moment the fighting broke out. The UN has no business being in an active war zone unless they are willing to fight.

For what it’s worth, a lot of folks here are upset that the UN did not pull those observers out immediately. You can bet every civilianUN bureaucrat was gone in a flash. An interesting comment from my blog:

As a member of the CF [Canadian Forces] that spent six months on the Golan Heights during Gulf War Two, I agree with Steve’s point about re-examining our role in the UN.

My experience with the UN has demonstrated that the UN is mostly useless.

Don’t get me wrong, UN soldiers try to do the right thing and make it work, but the UN civilians are the worst. Appearing (to a soldier) to be very lazy and more focused on the red tape, it takes an exceedingly long time to get anything done. One example, during my tour there were some old UN vehicles that were being cut up for parts. They had been working on that contract for 3 years and even then, I got less than 2 days notice that they were coming to cut the things up. UN civilians are being paid outrageous amounts of money to do nothing. The civilian guy in charge on our camp was quite happy. He was getting paid in excess of $80k US (tax free) to run the civilians there (about 7 people). He was living on the Syrian side (very cheap to live) and had been there about 8 years. You could not have gotten him out of there with dynamite. I never did figure out what he did during the day and on my occasional surprise visits to see him I caught him surfing the net, and the stuff he was looking at did not appear to be UN business.

I think the most likely response you will get from soldier about UN missions is that they are good ideas but poorly executed, particularly the longer they run. The Golan mission has been monitoring a cease-fire for 32 years. When is that cease fire going to become peace? The UN just allows each side to ignore the situation. And a bunch of lazy civilians to get great gobs of money to do nothing.

Is it no wonder that post was left to fend for itself amidst a free fire zone? And then what happened happened?